The webinar is designed to train frontline clinicians and their teams on skills for suicide risk assessment, evidence-based interventions, referral and transition when needed, and how to change the culture of addressing suicide risk across the clinician’s practice. By participating, learners will be able to review evidence-based data which will be supported by approaches and application methods.
Event & Training Types: General Webinar
Adolescent Suicide Prevention and Medical Settings
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is now the second leading cause of death among youth ages 10 to 24,1 with the fastest-growing rates among youth ages 10 to 14.2 There is significant racial disparity, with suicide rates among Black youth ages 13 and younger twice that for White youth.3 According to 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) data, nearly 20% of students (grades 9 to 12) reported seriously considering suicide in the prior year.4
Youth at risk for suicide are often seen by health care providers in the weeks and months prior to their deaths, indicating that there are opportunities to intervene.5 For example, approximately 80% of youth who died by suicide had visited a health care provider in the year before their death, and 40% had had a general primary care visit.6 In addition to primary care, emergency departments and inpatient facilities are critical settings for suicide prevention, as the rates of emergency department visits and inpatient hospitalizations for suicidal ideation and suicide attempts doubled between 2007 and 2015.7, 8
Medical settings can therefore play an important role in reducing youth suicide. Pediatric primary care, emergency departments, and other medical inpatient units can be critical settings to identify and care for youth at risk of suicide. Physicians and other staff are well suited to conduct routine screening and risk assessments and adopt robust clinical care pathways that can better care for and protect youth. Since many systems do not universally screen for suicide risk and individuals are unlikely to disclose suicide risk when not asked directly, youth who are at risk may be undetected despite receiving care, and that care is unlikely to include suicide-specific interventions.9
Zero Suicide provides a systems-level framework for improving suicide care across settings. Zero Suicide can be leveraged to embed standardized risk identification and development of clear clinical care pathways, as well as suicide-specific treatment and critical follow-up practices. In this webinar, presenters will discuss effective suicide prevention practices applicable to medical settings, the role of clinical care pathways and workflows that provide guidance and support for health system staff, and ways to leverage the Collaborative Care Model to connect primary and mental health care for adolescents at risk for suicide.
References:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) [online]. (May 2021). Retrieved from www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars
- Horowitz, L., Tipton, M. V., & Pao, M. (2020). Primary and Secondary Prevention of Youth Suicide. Pediatrics, 145(Suppl 2), S195–S203.
- Bridge, J. A., Horowitz, L. M., Fontanella, C. A., Sheftall, A. H., Greenhouse, J., Kelleher, K. J., & Campo, J. V. (2018). Age-related racial disparity in suicide rates among US youths from 2001 through 2015. JAMA pediatrics, 172(7), 697-699.
- Ivey-Stephenson AZ, Demissie Z, Crosby AE, et al. Suicidal Ideation and Behaviors Among High School Students — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2019. MMWR Suppl 2020;69(Suppl-1):47–55. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.su6901a6
- Fontanella, C. A., Warner, L. A., Steelesmith, D., Bridge, J. A., Sweeney, H. A., & Campo, J. V. (2020). Clinical profiles and health services patterns of Medicaid-enrolled youths who died by suicide. JAMA pediatrics, 174(5), 470-477.
- Ahmedani, B. K., Simon, G. E., Stewart, C., Beck, A., Waitzfelder, B. E., Rossom, R., … & Solberg, L. I. (2014). Health care contacts in the year before suicide death. Journal of general internal medicine, 29(6), 870-877.
- Burstein, B., Agostino, H., & Greenfield, B. (2019). Suicidal attempts and ideation among children and adolescents in US emergency departments, 2007-2015. JAMA pediatrics, 173(6), 598-600.
- Plemmons, G., Hall, M., Doupnik, S., Gay, J., Brown, C., Browning, W., … & Williams, D. (2018). Hospitalization for suicide ideation or attempt: 2008–2015. Pediatrics, 141(6).
- Horowitz, L. M., Roaten, K., Pao, M., & Bridge, J. A. (2020). Suicide prevention in medical settings: The case for universal screening. General Hospital Psychiatry, 63, 7-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2018.11.009
Lived Experience Leadership and Peer Support Services
The Zero Suicide framework emphasizes the inclusion of suicide attempt and loss survivors as a key tenet of implementation success for all health and behavioral health systems. In this webinar, presenters will discuss how having lived experience integrated across all staff roles and levels can transform organizational culture; the impact of peer support initiatives on suicide prevention practices and service delivery; and concrete approaches for successfully embedding lived experience in an organization’s standard practices.
Digital Mental Health Interventions for Suicide Prevention among Young Adults
Over the last two decades, suicide-related deaths in the United States have generally increased each year, and young adults (those ages 18-25) are especially vulnerable. Young adults are the age group with the greatest prevalence of suicidal ideation as well as past-year suicide attempts. Suicide-specific interventions such as safety planning, cognitive behavior therapy for suicide prevention (CBT-SP), and (among others), collaborative assessment and management of suicide (CAMS) can be effective at reducing suicidal ideation, behavior and hospitalization.
However, many young adults are not interested in, or cannot access, traditional forms of treatment, which limits the number who will receive in-person suicide care. Digital mental health interventions can be used to reach and engage individuals who are unable to receive (or uninterested in) traditional in-person mental health services.
Fortunately, young adults appear to be interested in using self-directed digital technologies to help manage their mental health symptoms, so digital mental health interventions may help close the treatment gap. This presentation reviews the safety, acceptability, and emerging efficacy and effectiveness of existing digital mental health interventions for suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This presentation also reviews the dissemination and implementation of these tools in different settings across the country.
The Power of Human Connections: Improving the Treatment of Suicidality with the Insights of Lived Experience
This webinar explores ways to improve suicide care and treatment using insights from lived experience. The discussion includes an overview of community-based alternatives to hospitalization and suicide care clinical treatment models, as well as research on the impact of peer support and positive media messaging on suicide risk.
Suicide Risk Assessment: Reducing Liability and Improving Outcomes
This presentation helps practitioners and others understand suicide from a risk management perspective. The incidence of suicide is on the rise, and it is important for practitioners to understand how to assess risk among various populations and develop plans with patients to mitigate these risks. This presentation also reviews how liability works in legal settings and how to reduce the chance of malpractice. It also discusses standards of care regarding assessment and documentation, with some focus on firearms and risk assessment as an important risk mitigation strategy. This presentation will also review how to incorporate thinking of safety nets in risk reduction strategies.
Preventing Suicide in People with Opioid Use Disorder: Another Death Reduction Strategy
This webinar reviews the complex relationship between suicide and substance misuse, with a focus on opioid use disorder (OUD). Topics include methodological challenges in detecting drug poisoning suicides, recent clinical data on treatment-seeking patients who have survived opioid overdose, and intervention and prevention strategies for caring for patients with OUD.
Suicide Prevention in Native Populations: A Cultural Introduction
This webinar provides strategies and tips for health care professionals working with tribal populations. Common terms and definitions for Native American populations in the United States (US) were presented. A brief history of tribal nations and Native American cultural strengths was also reviewed.
Supporting Tribal Youth at Risk for Suicide: Honoring Children, Mending the Circle
This webinar reviews cultural adaptations of evidence-based treatments for Native American youth who have experienced trauma and are at risk for suicide. The presentation also compares evidence-based practice with indigenous ways of knowing.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Suicidal Behavior
This webinar will review the basic principles of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and discuss CBT for patients with suicidal behavior. The presentation will describe key components of suicide risk assessment and how to conceptualize treatment planning for patients with suicidal behavior, as well as safety planning and specific cognitive and behavioral techniques for suicidal patients.